THE HAGUE -- A Dutch schoolboy's ideas for how Greece could leave the eurozone has stolen the limelight at a major economics competition held in Britain, organizers said on Wednesday.

A jury at the once-off Wolfson Prize for Economics gave 11-year-old Jurre Hermans a 100-euro (US$131) voucher for his idea of how Greek citizens could return euros for the country's former currency, the drachma, to pay back debt.

Greece has just restructured its debt to ensure that it does not have to leave the eurozone, but the competition addressed the hypothetical case of a country leaving.

“The boy was not included on the shortlist of five finalists,” a Wolfson Economics Prize official, who asked not to be named told AFP.

The official added: “But the jury thought, given the fact that he was the youngest candidate and put a lot of effort into it, that he deserved a special mention.”